Durable Goods New Orders – Long-Term Charts Through February 2015

Many people place emphasis on Durable Goods New Orders as a prominent economic indicator and/or leading economic indicator. For reference, below are charts depicting this measure. First, from the St. Louis Fed site (FRED), a chart through February, updated on March 25, 2015. This value is $231,291 ($ Millions): (click on charts to enlarge images) – …

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Money Supply Charts Through February 2015

For reference purposes, below are two sets of charts depicting growth in the money supply. The first shows the MZM (Money Zero Maturity), defined in FRED as the following: M2 less small-denomination time deposits plus institutional money funds. Money Zero Maturity is calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Here is the “MZM …

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Broad-Based Indicators Of Economic Activity

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) and the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index (ADS Index) are two broad-based economic indicators that I regularly feature in this site. The short-term and long-term trends of each continue to be notable. Doug Short, in his blog post of March 20, 2015, titled “The Philly Fed ADS Business Conditions …

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Updates Of Economic Indicators March 2015

Here is an update of various indicators that are supposed to predict and/or depict economic activity. These indicators have been discussed in previous blog posts: The March 2015 Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) updated as of March 23, 2015: – The ECRI WLI (Weekly Leading Index): As of March 20, 2015 (incorporating data through March …

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The U.S. Economic Situation – March 23, 2015 Update

Perhaps the main reason that I write of our economic situation is that I continue to believe, based upon various analyses, that our economic situation is in many ways misunderstood.  While no one likes to contemplate a future rife with economic adversity, current and future economic problems must be properly recognized and rectified if high-quality, …

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Janet Yellen’s March 18, 2015 Press Conference – Notable Aspects

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015 Janet Yellen gave her scheduled March 2015 FOMC Press Conference. (link of video and related materials) Below are Janet Yellen’s comments I found most notable – although I don’t necessarily agree with them – in the order they appear in the transcript.  These comments are excerpted from the “Transcript of …

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Stock Market Capitalization To GDP – Through Q4 2014

“Stock market capitalization to GDP” is a notable and important metric regarding stock market valuation.  In February of 2009 I wrote of it in “Does Warren Buffett’s Market Metric Still Apply?” Doug Short has recently published a post depicting this “stock market capitalization to GDP” metric. As seen in his March 17, 2015 post titled …

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Trends Of S&P500 Earnings Forecasts

S&P500 earnings trends and estimates are a notably important topic, for a variety of reasons, at this point in time. FactSet publishes a report titled “Earnings Insight” that contains a variety of information including the trends and expectations of S&P500 earnings. For reference purposes, here are two charts as seen in the “Earnings Insight” (pdf) report of …

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S&P500 Earnings – Estimates For Years 2014 Through 2016

As many are aware, Thomson Reuters publishes earnings estimates for the S&P500.  (My other posts concerning S&P earnings estimates can be found under the S&P500 Earnings tag) The following estimates are from Exhibit 12 of “The Director’s Report” (pdf) of March 18, 2015, and represent an aggregation of individual S&P500 component “bottom up” analyst forecasts.  For reference, the Year …

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Standard & Poor’s S&P500 Earnings Estimates For 2015 & 2016 – As Of March 12, 2015

As many are aware, Standard & Poor’s publishes earnings estimates for the S&P500.  (My posts concerning their estimates can be found under the S&P500 Earnings tag) For reference purposes, the most current estimates are reflected below, and are as of March 12, 2015: Year 2015 estimates add to the following: -From a “bottom up” perspective, operating earnings of $118.70/share …

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